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INTRO: The organization that monitors one of Europe's most important waterways has cleared the way for the reopening of the Danube River, which has been blocked by debris from NATO's 1999 bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. Stefan Bos reports from Budapest.

TEXT: After more than a year of negotiations, the Danube Commission says it has reached an agreement on how to remove the debris of several bombed bridges in Yugoslavia. The President of the Commission, Helmut Strasser, says the accord will make it possible for the European Union to release the bulk of an estimated 25-million dollars needed to clear the bridge debris. The bridges were located in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad, where many air-strikes were carried out during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. The Danube Commission says the clean up operation will begin within 5 months, well before the harsh Balkan winter sets in. Commission officials believe the management structure for the operation, which will be carried out with Yugoslavia's support, will be in place within six weeks. Hungary, the only NATO country bordering Yugoslavia and other neighboring nations, has been urging the international community to support the clean up. But some Western diplomats say this may undermine international efforts to isolate the government of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. They say he should pay for the damage caused by the NATO air- strikes, which they say he provoked by his actions in Kosovo. However, the European Union has made it clear it is concerned about the fate of shipping companies which are losing millions of dollars because the vital waterway is blocked. (SIGNED)
NEB/SB/KBK 17-May-2000 15:03 PM EDT (17-May-2000 1903 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[08] TURKEY / IRAN (L ONLY) BY AMBERIN ZAMAN (ANKARA)

INTRO: Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has accused Iran of failing to respond to evidence of Iranian involvement in the murders of Turkish pro- secular writers and academics. Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara.

TEXT: Mr. Ecevit's remarks came after Turkish police reported they arrested four suspects in connection with the 1990 letter-bomb murder of Bahriye Ucok - a woman professor who was a staunch defender of secularism in Turkey. The arrests follow those of 15 other men who are accused of the murders of columnists Ugur Mumcu and Ahmet Taner Kislali who worked for the left-leaning daily newspaper Cumhuriyet. Mr. Mumcu was killed in 1993 when a bomb placed under his car exploded outside his Ankara home. Mr. Kislali was killed in the same way last year. Turkish officials say two of the prime suspects in the Mumcu killing confessed that two Iranian nationals had placed the bomb under the slain journalist's car. Turkey and Iran are long-time rivals for influence in the oil-rich former Soviet central-Asian republics and the southern Caucasus states. Analysts say Turkey's firmly pro-secular western-style democracy contrasts sharply with Iran's Islamic government Turkish officials have long accused Iran of seeking to export its Islamic revolution by arming and training extremist groups in Turkey. Mr. Ecevit repeated accusations Iran also is supporting separatist Kurdish guerrillas of Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party. Iran denies all the charges. But Mr. Ecevit said Turkey would, in his words - re-evaluate its ties with Iran on the basis of concrete evidence of the ongoing investigations. In a related development, Turkey's newly elected President Ahmet Necdet Sezer told reporters after his inauguration Tuesday that he will not be traveling to Iran on his first official trip abroad, as previously scheduled. (SIGNED) NEB/AZ/JWH/ENE/RAE 17-May-2000 11:15 AM EDT (17-May-2000 1515 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America

[09] CHINA-EU-WTO (L-ONLY) BY LETA HONG FINCHER (BEIJING)

INTRO: Chinese and E-U trade negotiators are working out the final details of an agreement to enable China to join the World Trade Organization. Correspondent Leta Hong Fincher reports from Beijing that the European Union is seeking a better deal than the one reached between the United States and China last November.

TEXT: E-U Commissioner Pascal Lamy continued his third-day of trade negotiations with Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Xu Guangsheng in Beijing. A deal with the European Union is the last major hurdle for China before it can gain membership in the World Trade Organization. E-U spokesman Anthony Gooch described the mood of the talks as workmanlike and constructive, but said it was too early to tell when an agreement would be reached.

[10] NY ECON WRAP (S&L) BY LARRY FREUND (NEW YORK)

INTRO: Stock prices in the United States were lower Wednesday, as investors considered the impact of Tuesday's interest-rate increase by the U-S central bank, and the possibility there may be still more rate hikes. Correspondent Larry Freund reports from New York.

TEXT: The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped almost 165 points -- one-and-one-half percent -- closing at 10 thousand-769. The Standard and Poor's 500 index, reflecting the broader market, was down almost 19 points, or one-and-one-quarter-percent. And the NASDAQ composite fell almost two percent. Market analysts saw the decline as a day-after reaction to Tuesday's decision by the U-S Federal Reserve Board to throw some (cold) water on the hot U- S economy -- by raising key interest rates and by hinting that rates could rise still further to stop inflation. Analyst Ricky Harrington of Wachovia Securities says higher interest rates will offer more competition to stock investments.

[11] WEDNESDAY'S EDITORIALS BY ANDREW GUTHRIE (WASHINGTON)

INTRO: Texas Governor George Bush, the presumed Republican presidential candidate, is advocating changes in the country's Social Security system, triggering an avalanche of commentary in the daily press. Elsewhere in the editorial columns, the interest rate increase put into effect Tuesday by the nation's Federal Reserve system (central bank) also draws lots of comment. Other editorials cover the media raid by forces of the new Russian president; the latest Mideast violence;

TEXT: As the Wall Street Journal puts it, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has reached out and touched "the third rail of American politics," slang for a sure way to kill your chances of election. In other words, Mr. Bush has made a proposal on one of the most controversial of all national issues. He has proposed allowing younger workers to put some of their government retirement - Social Security -- funds into the stock market, rather than into the totally safe, but very low interest, federal account as is now the case. The Chicago Tribune calls this "issue number one, and comments:

TEXT: This could well be a defining issue of the campaign - - and it's a worthy one. It goes to the heart of the relationship between citizens and their government. /// OPT /// For 65 years, Social Security has operated fundamentally the same way ... as it was in the Great Depression. /// END OPT /// Workers are taxed to pay benefits for retirees. It's an intergenerational transfer of wealth that insures Americans ... a basic monthly benefit when they get old. [Mr.] Bush is proposing to shift some portion of the 12-point-four percent Americans pay each year in payroll taxes into private retirement accounts that could be invested in the stock market. ... It is a great debate ... [George] Bush has taken a political risk by talking about financial risks. Give him a hand. [Editors: in this case "credit."]

TEXT: Pennsylvania's Greensburg Tribune-Review likes the Bush proposal, calling it:

VOICE: ...a commonsense plan that would preserve the current social Security system for those already retired or those about to.... The vice president, however sees Social Security as a great "success" story.

TEXT: The Los Angeles Times, however, calls the Bush plan "flawed" and demands more specifics. Summing up, it suggests:

VOICE: There is need for an informed Social Security debate, though whether this year's presidential campaign is the proper venue for it remains to be shown. Providing for the long term solvency of the system is more a political than a fiscal challenge ... [Mr.] Bush and [Mr.] Gore have offered their alternatives. Neither plan impresses.

TEXT: Still in the general area of national finances, the nation's central bank, called the Federal Reserve System, has increased the prime interest rate by half a percentage point, to help control inflation. It is also drawing plenty of comment. The Hartford [Connecticut] Courant doesn't agree with the increase, writing that what the Federal Reserve is really countering is the "threat of inflation, not inflation itself." The Courant writes:

VOICE: Mr. Greenspan and the other members of the Fed's open market committee who have raised interest rates an incredible six times since last June, all to fight a phantom ... have been proved wrong more than once ... There's always the danger ... the federal bankers could overreact ... and stall the economy, plunging it back into recession.

TEXT: The New York Times, however, notes that both it and Wall Street agree with the rate hike to tamper the threat of inflation.

VOICE: So Wall Street reacted warmly when the Fed raised short-term interest rates by half a percentage point, double the size of ... the five previous rate increases. ... {The] best way to create room for wages to rise further is to keep the economy growing. For that to happen, the Fed believes it must convince everyone that inflation will remain under tight control. That is what the Fed said it would do ... [and] Wall Street believed what it heard.

TEXT: Internationally, several papers are criticizing Russia's newly inaugurated president, Vladimir Putin, for what looks like an anti-democratic attack on Russia's emerging free press by government agents. The Sun in Baltimore goes so far as to headline its editorial: "Comrade Putin of K-G-B.

VOICE: In recent days, Mr. Putin has won plaudits from Western observers for an administrative reorganization that weakens the authority of Russia's overbearing regional governors. He is consolidating power. But if that is seen as a good and long- overdue move, it has to be balanced against the Putin government's attempt to muzzle an independent media company [Media Most] that has been critical of the Kremlin leadership. The word "troubling" doesn't begin to describe the ominous portent of a recent raid by gun-toting SWAT teams on Media-Most ... This is bad news that should not be sugarcoated in the West.

TEXT: Turning to the recent outbreak of violence on the West Bank, Boston's Christian Science Monitor tries to find a glimmer of good news among the bad.

VOICE: The first real ingredients for a final deal between Palestinians and Israelis have been put into the mix. Never mind the fact that the two sides' forces shot at each other during protests. That just confirms the frustration over slow progress since the 1993 Oslo accords. ... And secret talks are under way that could solve two other sticking points: a symbolic return of Palestinian refugees and granting the Palestinians control of 80 to 90 percent of the West Bank and Gaza (up from the present 40 percent).

TEXT: However the Wall Street Journal is far less optimistic.

VOICE: This week's violence, the worst in years, is a sign that lasting peace is still far off. The usual tendentious accounts in the West cite Palestinian frustration with the pace of peace talks. The truth, however, is that with polls indicating a majority of Israelis supporting a Palestinian state, it is the Palestinians' moment. Should they continue to respond to Mr. Barak's unilateral concessions with intransigence and violence, however, this support for Mr. Barak's peace agenda could quickly evaporate. ///

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